[Sca-cooks] Period Chicken Salad

[Cat Dancer]

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> BARIDA OF IBRAHIM IBN AL-MAHDI
> 9th century, 'Abbasid Dynasty, Baghdad
>
> I served this at a Laurel vigil buffet for two vigilees simultaneously.
>
> ORIGINAL
> translated by David Waines in "In a Caliph's Kitchen", pp. 82-83
>
> Two parts almonds and sugar and two parts vinegar and mustard mixed
> together in a vessel with partially dried safflower adding colour
> around the edges. Cucumber peeled, qutha and faqqas and pomegranate,
> chopped up small and sprinkled around the vessel. Add a little oil.
> Take a fine young chicken, cooked in vinegar, jointed and cut up in
> pieces and placed over the other ingredients in one vessel. Decorate
> the dish with pomegranate (seeds) and with almonds and olives chopped
> up fine.
>
I have a question about the pomegranates. Would it make any sense to use 
some pomegranate juice in with the mustard in lieu of actual pomegranates, 
which are darned hard to find this time of year?

Many thanks,

Margaret FitzWilliam